Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Basic concepts
- 2 The accounting framework
- 3 The accounting system: elements of double entry accounting
- 4 The accounting system: revenues and expenses
- 5 The accounting system: accruals, prepayments and depreciation
- 6 The interpretation of accounts
- 7 Accounting for price changes
- 8 The collection and processing of accounting data
- 9 Some extensions and suggestions for further reading
- Solutions to exercises
- Notes
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Basic concepts
- 2 The accounting framework
- 3 The accounting system: elements of double entry accounting
- 4 The accounting system: revenues and expenses
- 5 The accounting system: accruals, prepayments and depreciation
- 6 The interpretation of accounts
- 7 Accounting for price changes
- 8 The collection and processing of accounting data
- 9 Some extensions and suggestions for further reading
- Solutions to exercises
- Notes
- Index
Summary
ORIGINS
In 1972, when I was appointed to the Chair of Accountancy and Finance at Edinburgh University, I had never given a lecture on accounting. I was faced immediately by a group of more than a hundred first-year undergraduates, fresh from school and keen to learn about accounting to advance their careers, typically with the aim of becoming Scottish Chartered Accountants. What was I to tell them? I had a horror of the then typical compendious introductory text-book (and still quite common) which recited detailed book-keeping routines in an apparently aimless manner, with no logical foundation. On the other hand, I was convinced that in order to study accounting it was necessary to be able to do accounting, at least to the extent of preparing a set of basic financial statements for a simple business. I therefore resolved to explain the essential logic of the accounting framework, using numerical illustrations, but emphasising principles rather than the fine detail of practice. My attitude to the subject had been shaped by my first teachers at the London School of Economics, Professor William Baxter and Professor Harold Edey, and it was to Professor Edey's Introduction to Accounting that I turned as the recommended text. The influence of Prof. Edey's book is still apparent in my current introductory teaching, as reflected in this book.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Elements of AccountingAn Introduction, pp. xi - xivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992